Felt That Way
by msknowitall
Summary: HPTS- SPLUTTERS and SPARRING. Hogsmeade weekend and James is just as confusing as ever to a poor bewildered Katherin. Katherin/James/Louis centric \


A.N. '_Louis'_ is pronounced the way it is by birth or the French way, Lou-ey. 'Louis' is pronounced the American way, Lou- iss. It is like this in all my fanfictions because _Louis_ is called Louis by James, Katherin, and Rose because it annoys him.

Disclaimer: I do NOT ō- ya-know, it wouldn't be fanfiction if I had the rights would it. Assume as you wish.

Felt That Way

Katherin left the Gryffindor table and her actual intelligent conversation with 1st year Rose Weasley. She started up the stairs in the entrance fully believing that she would curl herself up in her dormitory with a book and avoid the notorious eldest Potter for the rest of the Hogsmeade weekend. She looked at the trek ahead of her the 7 stair cases that move at the most inconvenient of times. Suddenly she felt a rush of air behind her; some one had moved to stand behind her.

She spun around, fast enough for her hair to whip the other side of her neck. Two mischievous, warm brown eyes looked at her. "Wanna go to Hogsmeade?" This is somewhat what she had been trying to avoid.

At first she was stunned, and over the next 3 to 5 seconds her emotions flashed through confused, hurt, anger, confusion (again), then even more confused. Potter had always confused her; he was the hardest equation in Hogwarts. She couldn't figure out if he wanted to _go_ with her or go with _her_.

"Sure." Katherin halfway surprised herself at the feeling in her gut. "I need to buy some more quills and Zonkos should have my complete order by now." Her mind temporarily spaced out to the idea of having hog bee honey and wall fumblers.

James' face was weird. He looked happy but something was off, not on point.

"Come on, you two, we won't have enough time to get there and back if you stand there too long." Katherin's hopes went for a tumble falling at least from her heart to her feet, maybe even into the ground a yard or two. James hadn't meant just the two of them; he meant the three of them; Her James and LOUIS, too.

Then Katherin noticed Mary at Louis' side holding his hand and teetering on her toes. Both Mary and Louis had light jackets on, but James, being James, was standing their in his thermal grey and black shirt and black jeans; he had a hat on his head but that was the only warm thing about him, disregarding his eyes.

So, was it a double date? NO, but no matter how many times she said it to herself it wouldn't make it more of an impossibility. Her hopes came back to about her stomach making butterflies flutter and swirl around. James was glaring at Louis and Katherin remained confused.

James turned back to her with a red expression. When he just stared at the floor she took the opportunity to flick him in the forehead and race down the stairs. It was James' turn to be confused.

Katherin whipped her wand from her sock and flicked it with a small mutter of 'accio'. It took a few seconds but both her and James' jackets flew out of the Gryffindor common room and down the center of the staircases to the waiting recipients.

Katherin slipped hers on and James stuck his arms into his smiling at her. Mary looked surprised at the whole event. James raced Katherin out the door and they were smiling almost bright enough to make the cold chill disappear.

Mary ended up walking with Katherin, it was mostly silent. Katherin didn't mind quiet; it was a major contrast with James though. "So you and James are going out?" Mary hugged her windbreaker closer around her.

"What?" Katherin gave her a look of horror mixed with a draft of disgust.

Mary shrank back a bit. "Guess not."

It was silent again. Katherin was glowering at the ground and stomping rather awkwardly to let out her anger. She didn't like the idea of people thinking she was dating James. It was a gross image that would take years of legimancy to remove.

"What's wrong?" James had caught up with them just enough to crane his neck to be almost on Katherin's shoulder. Too close to Katherin. Her face grew redder and her stomping louder. "Yes, I realized you were red and stomping, no need to make it more obvious." He noticed, it came as a shock to Katherin.

His voice was joking, his mouth a mean smirk, but in the quick glance to him that Katherin dared to make; she saw sincere eyes. This just made it worse, of course, though.

She stomped faster making her way away from James. "What's wrong with her? What did you say?" James must have asked Mary.

Mary was a shy witch, but she would probably stumble through a reply. "I don't really think you should know."

"Why not?" James demanded. Katherin didn't want to hear anymore of this conversation. She didn't want to here what Mary said back. She walked even faster before feeling she put enough distance between her and James, and everyone else.

She figured that James would start talking in his genuine act and start doing the thing with his eyes that makes them look so big and warm. She figured that, once Mary was swimming in them, he would start flirting with her and her face would turn red and she would giggle in a pathetically girly way. Katherin even came around to the thought that James was in 3rd year and it didn't matter who he flirted with, it wasn't her decision anyway, she was barely his friend. In Katherin's overly large brain it seemed to echo, 'she was barely his friend'.

"Markus!" She ignored him. "Markus!" She didn't care. "Katherin!" Her resolve started to melt.

"KATTY!" She filled with rage.

She turned around faster than when she was on the stairs. James was right behind her. She, immediately, took a step back to put space in between them. She swallowed hard.

James looked confused. No, Katherin was used to confused looks this wasn't one of them, this was more of a concerned look. "Don't call me that." She set her jaw to the side trying to douse the urge to stick her tongue out.

James let out a breath, most of it landed in her face, warming her nose from the cold wind. She sucked in a breath therefore, she realized, it was breath that had recently been in James. "Don't call me Jamie." He looked at Katherin then got red in the face. She didn't know what was on her face that made him turn red but it had.

Katherin smirked. "Never gonna happen." She looked up at him almost playfully from under her lashes.

He scoffed most of the sound escaping his nose rather than his mouth. Katherin looked over to see Louis was watching with an almost bored expression and Mary had one of those hopeful expressions that every witch has when they are anxious -or desperate- to be kissed. Except Mary wasn't looking at Louis, instead she was watching Katherin and James. "WHAT?"

That jolted James from wherever he had drifted off to and Louis was surprised at the sudden noise. Mary had turned red at being noticed. She turned and started walking toward Three-Broomsticks. Louis followed her with a curious waver of his eyes.

Katherin redirected her gaze to James. He was standing profile to her and his head was turned to watch Louis and his date leave. This only returned the color to Katherin's cheeks, the color she had worked so hard to get rid of. She looked down at the ground silently. "So… where do you want to go?" James voice interrupted her thorough study of the ground.

James raised his eyebrows. Katherin steadied her voice before she replied. "Aren't we going with them?" Katherin had figured they were going to stick with Louis and Mary.

James shook his head. "Naw… they wanted some alone time once they got here." James gave an eye roll.

"Why?" Katherin was confused.

"Dunno, Louis says it has something to do with fancying someone. You have to be alone with them and then you find out if you really like them or not." James moved one of his hands around as he spoke.

The wind picked up and threw around the hair that James didn't have tucked under his hat. He smiled. "I've never felt that way," Katherin said, meaning every word.

"Me neither." James agreed fully in a heart beat. Something in his eyes made Katherin believe him, too; something genuine. He shrugged and she gave a quick half volume laugh. James echoed.

"Let's go to Zonkos."

"Agreed."


End file.
